Tag Archives: Patreon

Tansy Rayner Roberts is responsible for much delight in my life, through her awesome books and novellas as well as her thoroughly delightful actual self.

She’s currently responsible for me mainlining the BBC Musketeers TV series, and how I’ve pestering people to watch it ever since.

It all began with her book, Musketeer Space.

I became a supporter of Tansy’s Patreon because this is Tansy Rayner Roberts. She’d just finished posting her SF, genderswitched alternative universe reworking of Alexander Dumas’s Three Musketeers.

I downloaded it. But man, did that file look looooooooooong on my Kindle, with dots leading off to the right beyond any other book I had on the device.

So I put off reading it. And put it off. Surely it would take ages.

Finally, though, I’d read every other TRR book in my collection, and I had time, so I finally opened it.

Readers, I tore through that book like I was going to get a prize for reading speed. And I DID get a prize! I got an awesome story, that was sprightly and funny and full of action and friendship and diversity and tragedy and romance and combat and consequences!

Basically, it was everything I always love about Tansy’s work.

Having gobbled down this delight that goes tripping along, I naturally immediately also seized upon the Musketeer Space short Christmas story she’d written for her Patreon supporters, Joyeux. It’s set before the epic novel, and richly fills out some of the backstory while creating a strong, wondeful story in its own right.

I stared about hungrily for a bit and then realised I had also downloaded Tansy’s book of essays about celluloid Musketeers.

Even if you haven’t seen the films and shows in question, the essays in It’s Raining Musketeers are written with such humour and charm that it doesn’t matter.

Still, by the time I was up to her glorious review of the third episode of BBC Musketeers, warning all the way about spoilers, I thought it best to watch the thing before continuing with the essays.

I watched the thing. I fell madly in love with it. With friendship and dashing hats. With men who were full of fire and feistiness, passion and playfulness, who could hug it out and be emotional.

With women who had agency and passed the Bechdel test, the sexy lamp test, the ‘do I want to drown them in the duck pond?’ test. The queen, Constance, Milady and brilliant guest stars, all superb and with their own motivations and faults and genius.

Even the foolish king, played so adeptly by Ryan Gage, won my heart. None of the later villains was as brilliant as Peter Capaldi’s Richelieu, who died so that the Twelfth Doctor could live, but they gave it a damned good shot, including Rupert Everett, who Richard-the-Thirded up his Marquis de Feron with terrific loucheness.

Did I mention the diversity? A black Musketeer, a hispanic Musketeer. One of them’s Italian. The last is played by Tom Burke, son of my favourite Watson ever, David Burke, so I was kind of in love with him through inheritence anyway.

So I gulped down three seasons of this splendid series, which has a whole story arc and comes to a natural conclusion that was satisfying and joyful.

Frankly, it had to be good to compete with TRR’s awesome take on the Musketeers as epic, diverse, queer space buddies who are the very epitome of swash and buckle.

Then, Musketeer-hungrier than ever I went back to finish the book of Musketeer essays. (TRR’s reviews continued to be spot on, and I’m glad I watched the show and avoided the spoilers, just so I could enjoy the events all over again while reading about them.)

So here I am, all full up to the brim with Musketeers.

I suppose one of these days I should actually read the Dumas original.

My first six months on Patreon have gone really well, and I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me there to write fiction! The second of the Duo Ex Machina novellas, Sacrifice, will wind up its chapter-by-chapter posting soon, and will then be prepped to go to all my supporters there as an ebook!

I’ve also reached my first income goal, which means a new short story collection will be produced in the next few months. All my supporters will get a copy of Scar Tissue and Other Stories as a reward before the book goes on sale elsewhere.

My Patreon supporters help me write fiction directly by paying a small amount each month. The income helps me to pay for things like covers, editing and proofreading. In time, I hope I’ll have enough income from all the mini-Medicis who support me to work a little less on the corporate writing side so I can write a little more on the fiction side!

Everyone who supports me gets a copy of my first Duo Ex Machina novella, Fly By Night and, when it’s finished the fortnightly posting, the second, Sacrifice, will also be available to all my Patreon supporters.

I have three more novellas in the series planned, and those will also be posted chapter-by-chapter as well as being provided as ebooks as they’re completed.

Scar Tissue and Other Stories

I’m currently completing some stories for a short story collection, Scar Tissue and Other Stories, which contains previously published fiction as well as new stuff.

These stories includes flash fiction, Holmes♥Watson stories, stories set in the universes of my novels, including The Adventure of the Colonial Boy (canon-era Holmes♥Watson), The Opposite of Life (vampires in Melbourne), Ravenfall (M/M paranormal thriller) and the yet-to-be-published Kitty and Cadaver (urban fantasy with music).

Levels of support

For the $1 level, you’ll get free books, posts about my research and lyrics, and early cover reveals.

For $3, you’ll also get sneak peaks, fortnightly chapters of new books, art and music posts.

At $5 you also get bi-monthly writing tutorials.

$10 sees you get naming rights in stories and ebooks

At $15 I’ll also send you greeting cards three times a year!

Top level supporters can get autographed paperbacks and I’ll write you a personalised short story!

If you’d like to support me, at whatever level, you’ll be helping me write more fiction, so that’s win/win, right?

Captivating, engaging, fun, inspiring

Narrelle is an incredibly knowledgeable, articulate and energetic presenter. That coupled with her great sense of humour made for an extremely entertaining evening. Olivia Simaitis, Waurn Ponds Library.
Book Narrelle M Harris as a speaker